Crimewood: Quality of Life Issues in Lakewood, Ohio

The answer is less than I would have guessed. Based on information provided during a June 28, 2007 meeting between Police Chief Tim Malley and members of the Structural Balance Task Force, 9 to 10 officers are on the road at night, although sometimes there are as many as 12. Some other interesting tidbits:

PERSONNEL AND EQUIPMENT

- Top two costs are personnel (90%) and police vehicles. 5 cars cost $138,000 total. They buy an average of 5 cars per year. City keeps cars for 5 years or up to 100,000 miles.

- 90 sworn officers make up the department

- 3 cars with special containment and ventilation dedicated to canine unit

- At most 9 to 12 officers are on the road at any point in time, plus supervisor

- Peak time 9 to 10 officers at night. Lightest 4 to 7 officers in the morning

- Taking down reports is very time consuming. Facility for book reports only allows one officer at a time. Average of 10 bookings per day — 1/2 hour per inmate.

- Canine Unit. 2 dogs are 5 to 6 years old and will retire at 7 to 8 years old. They frequently “troll” I-90 with speed traps, looking for drug trafficking.

JAIL

- Medical costs were very high in 2007. Lakewood pays the cost of medical treatment for 90% of inmates without medical insurance. Inmates “game” the system because they know the city will pay for their medical treatment. Lakewood Hospital offers a 35% discount. Other cities, like Westlake and Bay Village, send all their inmates to St. John West Shore and avoid medical costs. This is technically illegal, since those cities must pay for inmate medical costs.

- Lakewood City Prison has 8 cells from men, with a total capacity for 11 men. There is a capacity of 5 for female cells.

- 4 civilian corrections officers manage the jail.

- Lakewood often runs out of space and sends an average of 20 prisoners per day to cities like Bay Village.

I added some images of the impact site where a taxi cab smashed into 2210 Brown. I requested the police report, and will post it when it becomes available.
From the crime blotter:

Robbery. Vehicle hit a house and appears the driver may be injured. 22:03 202 advises that the cab driver is fine and stated a white male wearing a baseball cap and black leather jacket was trying to rob him by choking him from behind. The male took off running northbound on Brown and may have the victims cell phone 22:14 Transporting victim to Richland/Madison for and i.d. 22:17 Positive i.d. on male Cab is Ace cab #2566. Male arrested for robbery.

The February 19, 2008 Lakewood City Council meeting was attended by about 20 people and ran 1 hour and 20 minutes. Councilperson Mary Louise Madigan was a no show. Her absence was unanimously excused by council.

Former mayor Thomas J. George was honored with a resolution for his public service to the City of Lakewood. He was in attendance. Each member of council complimented him on his achievements. He made a brief acceptance speech. He said things are going well. Both of his children have full-time jobs and are looking at getting Masters degrees. He’s doing some traveling with his wife, and is busy with real estate work. Council gave him an award, and took his picture. George left immediately afterwards. The current mayor wasn’t in the room during the event. He arrived about 15 - 20 minutes late to the meeting. A few other former Lakewood city employees were scheduled to be honored, but were not in attendance. The resolutions were deferred.

Council had the third-and-final reading for a series of ordinances dealing with the bidding and contracting of upgrades and improvements for parks and pools, building and facilities, etc. They also appointed some people to various boards.

There was a second reading of the proposal to raise prices at Winterhurst Ice Rink. It is not financially self-sustaining and will probably see additional price increases on top of these increases.

The city will stop providing financial bonuses to employees with perfect attendance. The changes will save the city $40,000.

The police department forwarded a report to the law department regarding the transfer of Bottoms Up’s liquor license. The law department said it would forward the document to council this morning. Based on the report, the law department indicated there “was no reason to object” to the transfer. The police chief said there were a couple of disturbances at the location, but no arrests.

Ward 1 councilperson Kevin Butler is beginning an effort to reduce the noise and trouble caused by bars in Lakewood’s western region. From his letter to council:

In our recent deliberations over the liquor permit transfer at McCarthy’s and the proposed parking lot at Edwards and Detroit, we heard many of the gory details: violent and loud fighting, excessive noise well after midnight, overcrowding, public urination and intoxication, trespass, litter, broken windows, vandalism, drunken driving and problems caused by a lack of parking.

I believe we can point to few causes: (1) the permission granted to certain bars to expand dramatically without the adequate parking to support their increased capacity; (2) the permission granted to certain bars to install and keep open garage-style windows dming warm weather; (3) the unwillingness of the owners of several establishments to keep their noise levels reasonable and to self-police the neighborhoods around them; and (4) the insistence of certain owners to advertise cheap beer, often priced at no more than a dollar per serving. To serve the needs of the residents on, for instance, Edwards, Cordova, Winton, Bonnieview, Granger, Spring Garden, Rockway, Lauderdale, Mathews, western Detroit and elsewhere, I strongly support widespread reform in how we address our “bar problems,” which the city does not face elsewhere.

Read all of Butler’s proposals on page 49 of the meeting docket.

Usually, public comment occurs at the end of the meeting, but council let Bible Guy, a Clifton Blvd. resident (who didn’t have his bible this time), speak on this topic. “I don’t really know much about bars,” he said, but suggested the city “close them early.” The police chief added that there are two different types of liquor licenses. One that permits the sale of alcohol until 1 AM and another that permits the sale of alcohol until 2:30 AM.

Finance director Jennifer Pae provided the first reading of an amendment to the ordinance dealing with the 2008 Purchasing and Contracting Authority. The amendment reflects an increase of $50,000 in fiscal year 2008 for organic waste disposal. Apparently, doing it in-house was not cost effective due to vehicle breakdowns and the time constraints associated with hauling the debris.

Dorothy Buckon, the Director of Human Services, introduced the first reading of a resolution to enter into an agreement with the Cuyahoga County of Juvenile Court to accept funds for Lakewood’s Juvenile Diversion Program. She noted that Lakewood’s program has one of the lowest repeat offender rates in the county for first time juvenile offenders in the program.

Chief of Police Tim Malley asked council in a resolution to approve a $12,752 award that will allow most patrol cars to be equipped with tasers. Currently, only the SWAT team has tasers. The city needs to call for mutual assistance from Cleveland or Rocky River when they encounter situations where a taser is useful, such as when an individual barricades himself or herself in a room. These particular tasers have cameras that begin filming when the safety switch is disengaged. Here is an actual video from a taser camera. Councilperson Nicki Antonio approved the request, but did so “with some trepidation and some concern.”

One citizen spoke during the public comment period. Pat Manno (sp?), who lives on Quail, expressed his thanks for the placement of a new American flag at the veterans memorial at Lakewood Park. He also praised the work of his local block watch.

Before the meeting adjourned, the mayor mentioned that acting director of Public Works and current City Engineer, Dennis Albrecht, is leaving Lakewood to take a job with ODOT.

The Daily Morning Disappointment today reported that Lakewood police arrested 3 people after a 33 pound shipment of cocaine arrived at an apartment near the intersection of Lakeland and Madison. They were arrested on February 12th.

Why didn’t Crimewood.com catch this?

The simple answer has to do with what information the police disclose, and how they disclose it. There was no obvious mention of this incident in the Media Report Log. The only likely hint of it may have been a fleeting mention of an arrest warrant being issued.

Typically, there can be a dozen or more of these warrants issued every other day. No details relating to the warrants are provided. And when it’s part of an ongoing investigation, they won’t provide any additional information. For instance, earlier this month, they searched a boarded-up house at 2337 McKinley - Riverside. My request for the police report was declined because there is an ongoing investigation.

Okay, there are some new Lakewood police incident reports for your perusal, and the crime blotter is now current. There was a bit of a time crunch when assembling the backlog of blotter information, so I excluded some things — like driving under suspension incidents and radar locations.

The regular site update will be delayed by about one day. I expect to upload the regular crime blotter and several police reports shortly. If you just can’t wait, get a preview over at The Lakewood Observer.

I was perusing The Daily Morning Disappointment (as known as the Plain Dealer), and came across a Metro section article about the Cleveland Police’s efforts to acquire the AR-15, the civilian equivalent of the M-16. The idea is to try and level the playing field between your average non-SWAT police officer and violent criminals who carry deadly and powerful weaponry.  Cleveland City Council may not approve the purchase out of concern about the quality of the CPD’s relationship with the community.

Who knew the Lakewood PD already had an arsenal of these things?

From the article:

Two years ago, Lakewood spent about $20,000 to buy about 20 AR-15 rifles. Every patrol car on the street is assigned a rifle. The Columbine massacre and the threat of having an active shooter in an urban setting led the department to buy the weapons, said Capt. Ed Hassing. Lakewood officers had to use the weapons in May 2006 when a gunman opened fire on police, Hassing said.

“You need to be prepared for any threat,” Hassing said.

 

Considering that the Phantasy disturbance involved so many people, it is no big surprise that it isn’t yet available. Still making its way through internal review, most likely. I’ll check back later. The Lakewood Community Care (sex offense) didn’t contain much information. In a separate story, 74-year-old Leanora Gentile was robbed of $100 on Super Bowl Sunday while riding her motorized cart to Discount Drug Mart to pay her bills.

Lakewood owes Ms. Gentile a better fate.

Update: I learned the Phantasy report is ready. I’ll get it up shortly. 

The February 4, 2008 Lakewood City Council meeting was attended by about 18 people and lasted around an hour and 15 minutes. It marked the third and final reading of an ordinance that will enable Lakewood’s land bank to acquire foreclosed or forfeited HUD homes. Several cities in the country have similar programs that allow them to buy troubled HUD homes for $1.

The mayor announced he is going to begin a media campaign to alert the public regarding the seriousness of the City of Lakewood’s financial crisis. He received a report from the Ohio Auditor’s office confirming what he described as the “biggest deficit in modern history.”

An anonymous donor provided $5,000 specifically to ensure that the organist who provides live music at the Thursday night adult only skate at Winterhurst Ice rink will remain through the 2008 season. Previously, the organist was told his position would be cut effective January 2008 due to a budget shortfall.

Two residents spoke during the public comment period. Colleta Graham, whose rental home was stripped of its copper pipes by thieves, expressed concern with her situation. She said she took extra preventative measures to ensure her newly installed plumbing would not be stolen. She also shared her dismay over the number of Lakewood juveniles   — 19 by her count – who are in various forms of trouble in the court system.

The police chief explained that the juveniles could have been arrested months ago, and their cases are naturally progressing through the system. It is not necessarily a sign of a sudden problem. He also said he’s aware of the recent copper theft problems, and among other approaches, hopes to rely on citizen’s eyes to catch the thieves.

The mayor said crime in Lakewood is “not out of control” but is “not at an acceptable level.” He takes the matter “extremely seriously” and considers it a “crisis.” He indicated he is “looking at just about every option.” He said he’s had conversations about the matter with Lakewood block watch groups, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, and expects to introduce a crime initiative in the first week of March.

Sharon Vicaro (sp?), the other citizen speaker, complained about the persistent loud late night noise coming from Cronies. She lives on the sixth floor of a nearby apartment building and said that while she “loves Lakewood,” she’s “ready to move out of the neighborhood.” She said she’s spoken with Cronies management, but the problems persist. The police chief said Cronies has been cited for noise problems in the past. Councilperson Butler said he would look into it. There was some confusion over who currently owns Cronies and whether or not their alcohol license has been legally transfered. The police chief said there is usually some lag time in the transfer process.

Councilperson Antonio said she was absent from the last council meeting due to illness.

It is jarring to realize the sheer quantity of Lakewood homes being targeted by copper pipe thieves. Four homes were added to the casualty list between Thursday, January 31st and Friday, February 1st. According to Cuyahoga County auditor, sheriff, and court records, three of the homes are bank owned or in the foreclosure process and are likely vacant.

• 2174 Waterbury sold through foreclosure back to the bank on 12-10-07 for $83,334

Responsible party:
COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS, INC.
5401 NORTH BEACH STREET M/S - FTW-35 FORT WORTH, TEXAS 76137
817-230-6000

• 1566 Ridgewood sold through foreclosure back to the bank on 5-21-07 for $73,334

Responsible party:
COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS, INC., REAL ESTATE MARKETING
2375 NORTH GLENVILLE DRIVE, MAIL STOP RGV-C81
RICHARDSON TEXAS 75082
800-669-6607

• 1336 Bonnieview in the foreclosure process since 12-18-07

Court case notes suggest the owner, Jonathan M. Gray, has vacated the premise.

• 1658 Elbur

No evidence of foreclosure. Owned by Faisal and Gada Alatrash since September, 2006.

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On Friday The Phantasy Concert Club (11802 Detroit Rd.) was host to an out-of-control fracas that caused the Lakewood Police to request mutual assistance from the Cleveland Police. The club manager called to report there was a riot underway. Someone posted an image of the commotion on a Craigslist message board. I’ll request the police report later this week.

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The Lakewood Sun Post police blotter on January 31, 2008 incorrectly stated that “three white men” were suspected in the robbery of a Madison Avenue business. It be correct, it was two black males and one white female.

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I recently pulled a police report regarding an incident involving some Lakewood High School students, assault, and intimidation. Because it included mostly juveniles, I didn’t post it. The nature of the incident — bullying — was disturbing, and if I see a trend in this area, I will absolutely post them in the future.